Our God is Accommodating: Glory!
(2.) Our God is Accommodating: Glory!
“Who is able to understand the mind of Lord Yahweh? Who is able to be His teacher? We, however, have the mind of Christ!” (1 Corinthians 2:16).
An Accommodating Person is one who graciously changes plans for another’s benefit; who is willing to adjust in order to meet another’s needs; is open to adapting to changing circumstances; who is able to make concessions if needed; who makes allowances for others; who choose to oblige other and give them favors in order to be helpful; who is able to creatively shift from Plan A to Plan B if needed; who makes space for others to learn and grow; who welcomes others to fit into his own space; who makes reasonable exceptions to a general rule; who is comfortable in doing whatever it takes to be understood or to communicate effectively; who is willing to adjust expectations in light of reality; who is able to place limits on himself if it help others to flourish; who is able to step back in order to enable others to step forward.
Qualities of An Accommodating Person: Gracious; Humble; Sacrificial; Flexible; Observant; Farsighted; Insightful; Adaptable; Reasonable; Forgiving; Hospitable; Patient; Self-Effacing; Shrewd.
Our Accommodating God is willing, in His wisdom, to do everything described above, and then some. It seems to be in His nature to be an accommodating Soul, a part of His character since before Day One. God has been making concessions from before the creation of the universe, since creation itself was accomplished in the spirit of accommodation. God has also condescended to reveal His glory, agreed to His presence in the wilderness Tabernacle, made concessions to cultural realities in His Law, communicated in human language to produce holy Scripture, accommodated His word through His messengers, made Himself available through the Church’s sacraments, humbly revealed Himself with dreams and visions, and offered to us the ultimate accommodation… the Incarnation of His infinite Being to finite planet earth. God’s accommodations began before the beginning, during that eternal time before Day One, when Creator God filled everything, had always been present everywhere at the same time, and yet decided to make room for the universe. And the Lord has continued making concessions with His creation, with human beings, ever since. And that is the divine pattern to be found in our lives as well… to accommodate, to make space in our lives for God and for each other.
“Mt. Sinai was enveloped in smoke, because Yahweh descended onto it in fire. The smoke went up like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently, as the sound of the heavenly shofar grew louder and louder; All the people experienced the thunder, the lightning, the sound of the shofar, and the smoking on the mountain; To the people of Israel, the glory of the Lord looked like a raging fire on the top of the mountain.” (Ex.19:18 and 24:17). When the Almighty God condescends to earth and shows His glory, when He accommodates us to the extent that He reveals His almighty, eternal and all-powerful presence to us, the earth seems to split apart at the seams, nature is overwhelmed, and His weighty presence literally shakes the world. What exactly is God’s glory?
God’s Glory. The biblical meaning of God’s glory tends to emphasize the weighty splendor of God’s personal Presence; God’s supreme worthiness to be honored and praised; the overwhelming greatness of God’s beauty and power; the eternal weight of God’s substance; the heaviness of God’s inherent majesty. The weight of God’s presence outweighs the world; His presence is more substantive and heavier than the universe. His eternal glory remains constant, whether or not He decides to reveal Himself to us. God’s essential glory is forever Real in the heavens, whether or not we experience Him here with our senses on earth. When God’s glory makes an appearance, we can get everything from angels and trumpets and fire and earthquakes, to lightning and clouds and wind and thunder, to smoke and voices and blinding lights and foreign languages, to open graves and resurrected bodies and torn curtains and noontime darkness, to miracles galore.
“Above this surface was something that looked like a throne made of blue lapis lazuli. And on this throne high above was a figure whose appearance resembled a man. From what appeared to be his waist up, he looked like gleaming amber, flickering like a fire. And from his waist down, he looked like a burning flame, shining with splendor. All around Him was a glowing halo, like a rainbow shining in the clouds on a rainy day. This is what the glory of the Lord looked like to me.” (Ezekiel 1:26-28, NLT).
The Fire of His Glory. Time and again in Scripture, God turns out to be a fire. Is there a better way to describe God’s glory? He is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24) that gives light, sparks love, judges sin, and purifies like a refiner’s fire. Somehow, the Lord is a Person and yet a fire that kindles faith and declares His presence. How were the people alerted to God’s presence on Mt. Sinai? “And the glory of the Lord appeared to the Israelites like devouring fire on the top of the mountain.” (Ex. 24:17). “Mt. Sinai was wrapped in smoke, for the Lord descended upon it in fire.” (Ex. 19:18). When we are confronted with a fearful, overpowering fire, our natural response is to be in awe of its power, and that is a natural reaction when seeing God’s glory. We respond with fear and awe and a healthy respect. Somehow, God can be our friend as well as a consuming fire. We are able to talk with this Fire, like Moses on Mt. Sinai. Sometimes the fire is small and seemingly manageable, like the burning bush. Other times it appears to be out of control, a raging wildfire managed only by God. But make no mistake, in His glory He is a devouring fire. “Offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe; for our God is indeed a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29, AMP).
“Dear friends, don’t regard as strange the fiery ordeal occurring among you to test you, as if something extraordinary were happening to you. Rather, to the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah’s sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when His Shekinah glory is revealed. If you are being insulted because you bear the name of the Messiah, how blessed you are! For the Spirit of the Shekinah, that is, the Spirit of God, is resting on you!” (1 Peter 4:12-14; from The Complete Jewish Bible, translated by Dr. David Stern).
Shekinah Glory. Let us tiptoe into deep waters, into a tremendous mystery within this particular title of the Holy Spirit. There are so many inspiring aspects to this title, the Spirit of Glory, that we might as well take our time wading in. God’s glory can be described as the weighty, majestic, and fiery presence of God on the earth when He wants to localize Himself. God’s glory is what He looks like when He chooses to make an appearance. God is indeed everywhere, but apparently there are those times when He wants to appear on earth. The Jewish scholars between the Testament periods developed a wonderful word for “dwells,” Shekinah, which sums up for them, and us, God’s personal, divine presence on earth. So these two terms, Shekinah and glory, have come to mean much the same thing, and the two terms are often spoken as Shekinah glory, both terms together. And now the Holy Spirit comes to mind. When we see Shekinah glory, the fire of the Holy Spirit inevitably appears as well, in the midst of the glory, as a part of the glory. Since God is a “consuming fire,” it is not surprising that fire usually demonstrates God’s presence. All three of these spiritual realities, God’s glory, Shekinah glory, and the fiery Spirit, seem more or less indivisible. I’m not sure how one would separate one from the other, even if we wanted to do so. All three have to do with God’s localized presence, with God settling in and making a dwelling place.
Shekinah literally means “the One who dwells, settles in, resides, makes Himself at home.” The supernatural power of God’s presence has an understandable effect on nature. Nature doesn’t seem prepared for God’s glory and seems to sometimes have a difficult time managing something so otherworldly. After all, God’s glory is weightier than the universe, it has more substance to it than the entire world. Even a sliver of Shekinah glory sends the earth into turmoil. Isaiah asks for God’s presence and what it would take for Him to make an appearance in Isaiah 64:1: “Tear the heavens apart and come down!” Or perhaps you like the way David puts it in Psalm 144:5: “Bend your sky, O Lord, and come down.”
Glory Moments. There are many fiery Shekinah-glory moments in the Scriptures. Sometimes the “dwelling” of God is momentary, of short duration. In these cases, the fire of the Holy Spirit is present for a particular purpose, there one minute and then gone the next. Other times God’s presence is intended to remain for a time, a reminder that God promises to eventually be with us eternally, that He will be present with us in His Shekinah glory forever.
(1.) Shekinah glory illuminated the uncreated world with God’s presence, before there was any natural light from the sun or moon (Gen. 1);
(2.) Shekinah glory lit the flaming sword of the cherubim that miraculously turned in every direction, guarding the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3);
(3.) Shekinah glory was there at Yahweh’s “signing” of the Abrahamic Covenant, with a flaming torch and smoking oven from heaven (Gen. 15:17-18);
(4.) Shekinah glory was there at the burning bush with Moses, and the Angel of Yahweh speaking from within the bush which was never consumed ((Ex. 3);
(5.) Shekinah glory was present in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, to provide protection, guidance, and an assurance of God’s presence during their wilderness journey (Ex. 24, 33, 40).
(6.) Shekinah glory descended powerfully on Mt. Sinai at God’s giving of the Law of Moses. See the description of the Glory’s effects in the paragraph above (Ex. 19, 20, 24);
(7.) Shekinah glory condescended in muted form when Moses and the elders shared a divine communion service with the Lord on top of Sinai, and only the feet of Yahweh could be seen through the heavenly sapphire stone (Exodus 24:10).
(8.) Shekinah glory was present with Moses when Moses asked to see God’s glory, and the Lord passed before Moses and declared His character and essence (Ex. 33-34);
(9.) Shekinah glory came down from heaven onto the altars to confirm the sacrificial system in the Tent of Meeting before the people and their leaders (Lev. 9).
(10.) Shekinah glory descended into the Holy of Holies and filled it, dwelling over the Mercy Seat and between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant, the dwelling place for God during the journey (Ex. 40:34).
(11.) Shekinah glory came upon the two disobedient sons of Aaron in the Tabernacle and executed them for their unholy “strange fire” after a warning not to do so (Lev. 10:1-3);
(12.) Shekinah glory came down and filled Solomon’s Temple with his Presence at the Dedication ceremony, leaving the people awestruck at the power of the Holy Spirit (Ex. 13 and 19, and 1 Kings 8, 1 Chron. 7);
(13.) Shekinah glory was represented by the Holy Spirit in the passage about the Refiner’s Fire that will cleanse and purify God’s people (Malachi 3:2-3);
(14.) Shekinah glory was seen in a quick fashion in Gideon’s calling (Judges 6:21), David’s claiming the threshing floor for the future site of the Temple (1 Chron. 21:27), and on Mt. Carmel with Elijah calling down the fires of God to defeat the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18);
(15.) Shekinah glory was mentioned in many heavenly visions throughout the Hebrew Bible, including the vision of Isaiah 4:5 in which the heavenly fire of God’s presence will protect and illuminate Jerusalem with a canopy of heavenly fire; Ezekiel’s vision in Ezek. 1 in which he saw what looked like fiery coals burning like torches, and fire flashing with brilliance like lightning; and Daniel’s vision in Dan. 7 in which he witnessed the Ancient of Days sitting on a throne of fiery flames and wheels of burning fire, and a stream of fire flowed from the Ancient One’s presence. The Holy Spirit was alive and well during all these spectacular visions.
Handel: Messiah | And the glory of the Lord | VOCES8 & Academy of Ancient Music
Glory in the Flesh. All of these passages that involved fire and Shekinah glory in the Hebrew Bible were vital to the story of the Faith before Christ, and are actually anticipating and pointing to the Shekinah fire fulfillment in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the arrival of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. God’s presence was an important chapter before Jesus, but it now becomes intensely personal. Jesus is Shekinah incarnate. Jesus is Shekinah glory in the flesh, spiritually full of the fire of the Spirit. In the face of Christ, we see the muted version of God’s glory, shekinah in the minor key, because we wouldn’t be able to manage an appearance of His glory in its fullness. The Son of God is the spiritual radiance of God’s Shekinah presence. Christ is the permanent dwelling place of God’s glory, which is gloriously multiplied by the personal presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer’s life (Col. 2:9; John 14:9; Heb. 1:3; 1 John 3:2).
CeCe Winans – King of Glory (Official Audio)
“Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty! The Lord, mighty in battle! Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts – He is the glorious King! (Psalm 24:8-10).